Lenovo seem to make some of most popular AIO's. Assuming Ma is not a Fragg Queen, then any modern chip will do, just watch the quality/resolution of the screen and exactly what you get with it. Some have duff cheap wire less keyboards and mice, some even have nasty USB sticks for them (Acer).

Amazon is ok to check out the reliability/some of the more sensible reviews can be useful.

Aye, me Ma's twitch days are over, although she can still pwn the best Koreans at SC2...

Part of the attraction is to pick something up from a shop while I'm down here so I can set it up and sync her laptop, (I should be getting paid by whichever company's support line I'm saving a few days of work for )

Looking at Lenovo, Asus and Dell.

I'll look into the idea an ultra small desktop but she saw these AIOs and, bless her, fell victim to teh shiney.

I had a look at them a few months back. To be honest they all really underwhelmed me. In the end I got a iMac and dual booted. (Work paid, so money wasn't really an issue.) The iMacs are WAY WAY WAY overpriced, and I know you said you don't want to look at apple, but I think they are the only semi decent all in ones around.

Otherwise I'd say push her towards an ultra small desktop or something.